Happy NaNoWriMo!

Today is November 3rd, which means that NaNoWriMo has begun. Even such writers as John Green knows that it exists, and I really wish I could partake this year. Someday...ah...someday.

Anyway, so I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween weekend. I sure did. I went to a masquerade ball a couple of days before -- with a mask I made myself. It looked pretty damn good, too, if I say so myself. The best thing about it -- and really the best thing about being in college surrounded by fellow nerds -- was all the Star Wars themed costumes. At one point a Sith Lord and Luke Skywalker got into an epic lightsaber battle before Luke had disarmed the Sith Lord of his two lightsabers and thrust his lightsaber into the Sith Lord's chest. Ah...nerd-dom!

The only thing better than a Sci-Fi movie based costume is a literary nerd costume! Someone came dressed as the Ghost of Christmas Past!!! I wanted them to win the costume contest so bad, but the winner was someone who came dressed as an urban gangster...yawn.

Back to the Star Wars stuff, though. At one point, Luke walked up to a girl dressed in white and asked, "Are you Leah?" She responded with, "No. Padme." He responded, "Sweet." The flirting was pretty obvious, and I almost shouted "Incest! Incest!" but I didn't want to be that guy.

Halloween night I watched a couple of horror movies -- really good, cheesey ones, including Zombie Strippers (yes, that is a real movie, no, it's not a porn, and no, you shouldn't watch it if you're easily disturbed. I thought it was funny as hell, though.), and Trick or Treat (a movie featuring Ozzy Osbourne and Gene Simmons about the evil spirit of Rock, so you know it had to be freakin' funny) -- and played Apples to Apples with a couple of friends that came up from my hometown and Darling Dearest. She beat me...of course.

Now we have three gigantic bowls of candy and only me and my Dearest to eat it all. I wanted to give a lot away, and she almost strangled me for suggesting it.

So, it's after Halloween, and you know what that means...

WE GET TO FORGET THAT THANKSGIVING EXISTS AND JUMP STRAIGHT TO CHRISTMAS!!!!!

I may have already done most of my Christmas shopping... I love it that much. Darling Dearest will love her presents, and I really can't wait for all of my friends to get their gifts. I love giving gifts.

I also may be hinting heavily for several books in the near future (including the most recent addition to the Hitchhiker's Guide series).

Speaking of gifts, one of my good friends was nice enough to purchase the Rent movie soundtrack, a rare find indeed. I have yet to find it in any music store. My friend heard me lamenting about my lack of funds, and soon he was insisting to buy it for me. I am now a very happy fellow.

Sorry for the sporatic nature of this update. I've had many essays to write, many books to read, many poems to create, and not a lot of freetime. Hopefully things will slow down soon, although I doubt it. It's creeping up on the end of the semester, things will only get more hectic from here.

Anyway, good luck to those who decided to participate in NaNoWriMo. I'll be rooting you on from the sidelines.

First Impressions

This isn't a blog post about first impressions in the business world -- although it would be a great subject: comparing first impressions in other areas to your writing. Not to self: get on that one.

Anyway, this is just my first impressions on a few things. First of all, I got to see the new Harry Potter movie over the weekend. It was absolutely phenomenal. In my opinion, it was the best one out of all of them -- leaps and bounds better than the last one. You can tell that the original writer is back after letting someone else take over for the 5th one. The diaglogue, pacing, action, all great.

I have two complaints off the top of my head. The final scene should have had Ginny in it. I understand that the scene was showing how the trio started together and would finish together -- sort of a symbolic scene summarizing their friendship -- but Ginny was built up so much in the movie, I felt she became sort of forgotten in favor of action scenes at the end.

And, there was one moment where the cutting from one shot to the other was a little abrupt and awkward. But other than that? Amazing. Absolutely breath taking.

And the man who did the score did a pretty good job. There were moments where I just noticed how fantastic the score really was.

The movie did a great job of getting me excited for Deathly Hallows part 1 and 2. Especially since Steve Kloves is writing this one, too, and John Williams is returning to compose the score for this one -- he was the man who composed the score for the first three movies. And David Yates really proved his chops with this one, so I can't wait to see how he pulls off the final 2 movies.


Anyway, and also, I've been trying out a program that I found and was very interested in a while back, but felt it was too big for me. It's called yWriter, and it's the free, PC answer to Holly Lisle's Scrivener. Everything that Holly says Scrivener does, as far as I can tell, yWriter does as well, and since I don't have a Mac, this is an answer to my prayers. Version 5 is actually the newest version out, but for some reason a run through Google only brought me the logo for the 4th version, but you get the gist.

I was hesitant about downloading it, not because it seemed like a bad software, but because it seemed way too much for what I've been focusing on. I've been trying to write short stories lately to practice my craft and my ability to tell a story before I work on writing a novel and this software just seemed like way too much. Great for novels -- long sprawling things that they are -- but just too much for a tiny, little short story.

I was wrong. This thing is great. In about 30 minutes I had worked out not only my main characters, I have my plot lined out, and it even has an area that keeps track of your writing goals. Input a start date and a finish date and the number of words you want in your story and it calculates how many you need per day to meet your goal.

Pretty user-friendly once you poke around a bit. It can be very simple -- offering just a bare-bones notes area -- or it can be amazingly complex in helping you remember subplots, side characters, locations, dates, items that you introduced that don't need to be forgotten. It'll even help you remember that a character that died in chapter 17 showed back up across the country in chapter 22.

All in all, I'm very impressed with this handy little piece of software, and look forward to using in all of my future projects. It may give me the kick in my pants I need to get writing sometimes.

Niftiness and Computer Trials

So, my desktop with, like, 256 mB of memory (I'm sure that's an exaggeration but I'm mad, I have the right to exaggerate) isn't cutting it anymore. So my grandma gave me her old computer, which is newer than mine. After a week of badgering me to come get it, I go get it and take it home. I take it to my room, I hook it up, I turn it on, it detects a wireless network (ours) I connect...and...then it can't detect them anymore. I checked around, and supposedly all I have to do is remove the card and put it back in, and it should fix itself. I hope so. After last night, I threatened to throw it in the street and back over it with my car. I would have done it too, but my family wouldn't let me out the door with it. The saddes thing is, if we get my computer fixed tomorrow, it'll be just in time for me to leave and go back to college. *le sigh*

My brother is also getting an upgrade (yet hand-me-downed) computer -- my mom's old computer. Since that one needs a wireless card to pick up our wireless network, he put the one from his old computer into. Only now the drivers and stuff won't install. The CD just refuses to open. So now he's stuck meandering through the computer's brain, trying to figure out why the CD won't open.

**Update: It seems that the problems have been fixed, finally.**

Anyway, all these computer problems are frustrating, but I found something that kinda makes the unhappiness roll away. It's Jim Carrey, one of my favorite actors, singing "I Am the Walrus" by The Beatles. Don't judge it before you listen to it. I was surprised that he can actually sing, while still putting his own unique touches on it. Even one of my friends, who is a HUGE Beatles freak, really enjoyed the song. Anyway, for you listening and viewing pleasure, Jim Carrey:

Challenge Update and Musings

Well, first I'll get to the update about the challenge. I have officially finished my first novel of the New Year -- Shana Abe's The Smoke Thief.

This one was an interesting read to say the least. I picked it up because it was one of the only fantasy books that the Wal-Mart in my hometown carried, and the storyline intrigued me. The story is about a clan of dragons -- or, rather drakons -- that live in a secluded village in England. One thing I liked about this book was the presentation of the dragons. The ones mentioned in the novel -- I'm not ruling out other powers in dragons not mentioned -- could transform (Turn) between a human form, a dragon form, and a smoke form. This was interesting, because, unlike one of my friends who is actually consulting the Dragonology book because those are "the accepted guidelines for dragons" Abe did whatever she pleased with these. I like stories that take things that have been done a lot, like dragons, and turn them on their heads.

Another interesting thing about this novel was the behavior of the dragons. They were intelligent beings, basically humans with enhanced senses, but they were also driven by instinct and ancient decrees. When the Alpha male dragon meets the Alpha female dragon, they were supposed to wed. However, in case you haven't guessed, the heroine does not agree with these practices, and so she spends a lot of the novel fighting her instincts and her natural attraction towards the Alpha male.

This is where things get a little wobbly. The storyline is intriguing: Dragons are forbidden from leaving their little shire. However, Rue -- the heroine -- hates the society. She feels out of place, and the idea of marrying because of custom or nature rather than love disgusts her. So, she fakes her own death and moves to London where she uses her Gifts in the art of thievery. She becomes known as The Smoke Thief, and has all sorts of nifty connections to the seedy London underbelly. Of course, they eventually find her, and she's supposed to return, but the dragon's magical diamond has been stolen by another rogue dragon, and so the two Alphas must team up to get it back. Intriguing for me. Not your typical fantasy story.

However, the story seems to get bogged down with the two characters internal musings about each other. I love him, but I don't. He disgusts me, but he's so sexy. I love her, but I also want her. She's mine by nature, but I want her to return my feelings. There are several times in the novel where the action totally haults because the Alpha male gets a little too horny and tries to go all the way with Rue. All in all, though, I thought it was okay. I think it was good for me, because it was much different than the sword and sorcery fantasy that I usually read, and more romance than I'm used to reading as well.

With that out of the way, I thought I might talk about favorite authors. Is there an author that you grew up reading? Someone that, once you could read adult books, you just couldn't get enough of?

When I was in middle school, I got to read one of my first really long books. I'd read all those children's classics -- Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, Harriet the Spy, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Chronicles of Narnia -- but my first really adult book was The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King. From there, I believe I moved onto The Dead Zone. I read a good portion of Stephen King's bibliography during my middle school and high school days. I read every King book I could get my hands on: Misery, Cujo, The Dead Zone, Christine, The Talisman, the entire Dark Tower series, Black House, Dreamcatcher, etc.

Then, my friend turned me onto fantasy with the Shannara books, and I started reading every fantasy book I could find. Mostly, books that take place in our world were left behind. The next book on my list, however, is Blaze by "Richard Bachman", aka, Stephen King, and when I read the introduction the first couple of pages, I felt a unique and bizarre feeling. It was almost like a bridge had been built to the past, and I wasn't a almost 20 year old college student anymore, I was an 11 year old kid reading under his covers with a flashlight and the lights out after everyone else had gone to bed. It was a great feeling, like visiting with an old friend that you haven't seen in years (and King's habit of addressing his readers as 'Constant Reader' probably helped a little, too). Do you have any authors that, when you read them, they take you back to your childhood or teen years?

Choose Your World

S.M.D. had a really interesting post on his blog the other day about what kind of world he would want to live in if he could choose: Fantasy or Sci-Fi?

The question is actually kind of difficult once you start thinking about it. Fantasy and Science Fiction cross over into each other's territory all the time. For example, space opera, a branch of science fiction, is really more fantastic than scientific (i.e., Star Wars). Not to mention all the different branches off of the genres -- would you want to live in a steam punk world? A cyberpunk world? An urban fantasy world? A dystopian sci-fi world? High fantasy, or a modern world with fantastic elements?

I guess I'll go through and analyze what I like about the genres and narrow it down. I would probably want to be able to accomplish something big -- like saving the world. Which means I wouldn't want to be one of the Average Joe's of the world. I would want to be The One, the Last Jedi, the Last Dragon Rider, the Boy Who Lived. Luckily, both sci-fi and fantasy offer something like that.

I think, because I like magic, I would lean more towards fantasy. How cool would it be to be able to cast a fireball from your hand? Besides, with the advancement of technology, there would be even more weapons -- weapons more dangerous and destructive. I think the coolest fights are with swords. Then, it's not necessarily about ambushing, it just relies on skill. Good old mano a mano. Also, the difference between fantasy sword fighting and medieval swords fighting is, in medieval times, you got mangled, and the fighting was gruesome. In a fantasy setting, you would have healers who could save you from some rough wounds -- at least, better than the "healers" from back in the day.

So, for me, between magic, fantastic creatures (how awesome would it be to ride a dragon?), and sword fights, I'd choose fantasy all the way.

Holy Freakin' Crap!

I just realized, as of October 7th, Scribblings of a Madman has been running for 2 years. That's way longer than I thought I'd be blogging! I'd like to thank everyone that visits here, and all you guys who send on words of encouragement and stuff*. It means a lot. I never thought I'd have people read this thing, and it constantly amazes me that people actually give a rip about my random ramblings. (Ah...aliteration.)

Anyway, so Happy 2nd Birthday, Scribblings of a Madman!

*I wouldn't like to thank the nay-sayers and haters. You know who you are! As a matter of fact, I anti-thank you. That's right, I did it. Billy, who picked on me in lunch, and that old lady on the bus who gave me weird looks, I'm talking to you! What about you, crazy old man who talks to the birds? You said that the Earthling people wouldn't allow my alien race to take over this planet, well, what now old man?! What now!?